• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.34-34
• /
• 2012

Heavy storms rainfall has caused many landslides and slope failures especially in the mountainous area of the world. Landslides and slope failures are common geologic hazards and posed serious threats and globally cause billions in monetary losses and thousands of casualies each year so that studies on slope stability and its failure mechanism under rainfall are being increasing attention of these days. Rainfall-induced slope failures are generally caused by the rise in ground water level, and increase in pore water pressures and seepage forces during periods of intense rainfall. The effective stress in the soil will be decreased due to the increased pore pressure, which thus reduces the soil shear strength, eventually resulting in slope failure. During the rainfall, a wetting front goes downward into the slope, resulting in a gradual increase of the water content and a decrease of the negative pore-water pressure. This negative pore-water pressure is referred to as matric suction when referenced to the pore air pressure that contributes to the stability of unsaturated soil slopes. Therefore, the importance is the study of saturated unsaturated soil behaviors in evaluation of slope stability under heavy rainfall condition. In an actual field, a series of failures may occur in a slope due to a rainfall event. So, this study attempts to develop a numerical model to investigate this failure mechanism. A two-dimensional seepage flow model coupled with a one-dimensional surface flow and erosion/deposition model is used for seepage analysis. It is necessary to identify either there is surface runoff produced or not in a soil slope during a rainfall event, while analyzing the seepage and stability of such slopes. Runoff produced by rainfall may result erosion/deposition process on the surface of the slope. The depth of runoff has vital role in the seepage process within the soil domain so that surface flow and erosion/deposition model computes the surface water head of the runoff produced by the rainfall, and erosion/deposition on the surface of the model slope. Pore water pressure and moisture content data obtained by the seepage flow model are then used to analyze the stability of the slope. Spencer method of slope stability analysis is incorporated into dynamic programming to locate the critical slip surface of a general slope.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.35-52
• /
• 2009

A significantly thick zone of steep slopes is commonly encountered above groundwater table and the soils within this zone are unsaturated with negative pore-water pressures (i.e., matric suction). Matric suction contributes significantly to the shear strength of soil and to the factor of safety of unsaturated slopes. However, infiltration during rainfall increases the pore-water pressure in soil resulting in a decrease in the matric suction and the shear strength of the soil. As a result, rainfall infiltration may eventually trigger a slope failure. Therefore, understanding of shear strength characteristics of saturated and unsaturated soils under shearing-infiltration (SI) conditions have direct implications in assessment of slope stability under rainfall conditions. This paper presents results from a series of consolidated drained (CD) and shearing-infiltration (SI) tests. Results show that the failure envelope obtained from the shearing-infiltration tests is independent of the infiltration rate. Failure envelopes obtained from CD and SI tests appear to be similar. For practical purposes the shear strength parameters from the CD tests can be used in stability analyses of slopes under rainfall conditions. The SI tests might be performed to obtain more conservative shear strength parameters and to study the pore-water pressure changes during infiltration.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.41-49
• /
• 2003

Rainfall-induced landslides in a weathered granite soil slope usually happen on shallow slip surfaces above the groundwater table. The pore-water pressure of soil above the groundwater table is usually negative. This negative pore-water pressure (or matric suction) has been found to make a large contribution to the slope stability. Therefore, the variation of in-situ matric suction profiles with time elapse in a soil slope should be understood. In this study, a field measurement program was carried out from June to August, 2001 in order to monitor in-situ matric suctions and volumetric water contents in a weathered granite soil slope. Finite-element transient seepage analyses are also conducted using SEEP/W. The influence of climatic conditions on the variation of in-situ matric suctions could be found to decrease rapidly with the change of depth. It could be found that decrement of matric suction induced by precipitation is affected not only by the amount and duration of rainfalls but also by the initial matric suction just prior to rainstorms. The soil-water characteristic from the field monitoring tends toward the wetting path of SWCC obtained from the laboratory test.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2014

Numerical stability analysis of an unsaturated infinite slope under rainfall-induced infiltration conditions was performed using generalized effective stress to unify both saturated and unsaturated conditions The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of sand with a relative density of 75% was initially measured for both drying and wetting processes. The hydraulic conductivity function (HCF) and suction stress characteristic curve (SSCC) were subsequently estimated. Under the rainfall-induced infiltration conditions, transient seepage analysis of an unsaturated infinite slope was performed using the finite element analysis program, SEEP/W. Based on these results, the stability of an unsaturated infinite slope under rainfall-induced infiltration conditions was examined in relation to suction stress. According to the results, the negative pore-water pressure and water content within the slope soil changed over time due to the infiltration. In addition, the variation of the negative pore-water pressure and water content led to a variation in suction stress and a subsequent change in the slope's factor of safety during the rainfall period.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.47-62
• /
• 1993

The laboratorv model test was carried out to investigate the behavior of pore water pressure, the critical amount of rainfall for slope failure, the pattern of failure, and the variation of seepage line at the slope with the uniform material of embankment by changing the slope angles and rainfall intensities. The results were was summarised as follows : 1.At the beginning stage of rainfall, the negative pore pressure appeared at the surface of slope and the positive pore pressure at the deep parts. But, the negative one turned into the positive one as the rainfall continued and this rapidly increased about 50 to 100 minutes before the slope failure. 2.The heavier the rainfall intensity, the shorter the time, and the milder the slope, the longer the time took to reach the failure of slope. 3.As the angle of the slope became milder, the critical amount of rainfall for slope failure became greater. 4.Maximum pore water pressure was 10 to 40g/cm$^2$ at the toe of slope and 50 to 90g/cm$^2$at the deep parts. 5.In the respect of the pattern of slope failure, surface failure of slope occurred locally at the toe of slope at the A-soil and failure of slope by surface flow occurred gradually at the top part of slope at the B-soil. 6.As the rainfall continued and the saturation zone in the embankment was formed, the seepage line went rapidly up and also the time to reach the total collapse of slope took longer at the B-soil. 7.As the position of the seepage line went up and the strength parameter accordingly down, the safety factor was 2.108 at the A-soil and 2.150 at the B-soil when the slope occured toe failure. Minimum safety factor was rapidly down to 0.831 at the A-soil and to 0.936 at the B-soil when the slope collapsed totally at the top part of slope.

• Land and Housing Review
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.59-65
• /
• 2010

The paper presents a comparison between a semi-implicit time integration linear finite element implementation and fully-implicit nonlinear Newton-Raphson finite element implementation of a triphasic small strain mixture formulation of an elastic partially saturated porous medium. The pore air phase pressure pa is assumed atmospheric, i.e., $p_a$ = 0, although the formulation and implementation are general to handle increase in pore air pressure as a result of loading, if needed. The solid skeleton phase is assumed linear isotropic elastic and partially saturated 'consolidation' in the presence of surface infiltration and traction is simulated. The verification of the implementation against an analytical solution for partially saturated pore water flow (no deformation) and comparison between the two implementations is presented and the important of the porosity-dependent nature of the partially saturated permeability is assessed on comparison with a commercial code for the partially saturated flow with deformation. As a result, the response of partially saturated permeability subjected to the porosity influences on the saturation of a soil, and the different behaviors of the partially saturated soil between staggered and monolithic coupled programs is worth of attention because the negative pore water pressure in the partially saturated soil depends on the difference.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2008.03a
• /
• pp.435-441
• /
• 2008

More time is required for consolidating soft clay when its hydraulic conductivity around the vertical drains is reduced by soil disturbance. One of the methods to be proposed to solve such problem is the electro-osmotic flow application. This study presents the experimental results of model tests using a modified oedometer and a large-scale cylinder with a sand drain. Results show that the development of negative excessive pore water pressure due to the DC electrical field in saturated clay can be transformed to additional loads causing more consolidation settlement.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.124-128
• /
• 1998

The procedures currently used for determining microbiological quality of natural mineral water recommend filtration through membrane filters. In this study, we evaluated the effect of vacuum pressure for the accurate detection of bacteria from water samples seeded with Escherichia coli. We observed that the number of E. coli detected increased with increasing vacuum pressure. In order to examine the retention rate of bacteria in the holes of the membranes under the different pressures, the membrane filters were removed after filtration, washed with sterile water by vortexing, and placed on m-Endo agar plates. With all the filters tested, the number of E. coli retained within the filters at negative 600 mmHg was approximately 10 to $20\%$ higher than that obtained with 100 mmHg. These results demonstrate that the vacuum pressure exerted during the filtration procedure may affect the fixation of bacteria into some portions of openings in the membrane filter.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.91-100
• /
• 1988

Assuming that tidal level is constantly changed with an amplitude of 10 meters and a cycle of 12 hours, the slope stability for a typical dyke is analysed. The variation of pore water pressure within the dyke during the tidal change is obtained using a computer program, FLUMP, which is incorporated with saturated-unsaturated and transient flow. The results show that the variation of free water surface and distribution of pore water pressure within the dyke during the tidal fluctuations can be clearly predicted with the computer program. When a tide is lowered to the minimum level, the predicted pressure head is higher than the level of the free water surface in some parts of the dyke; that is, excess pore water pressure is generated in a zone affected by the tidal change. Also an unsaturated zone which shows negative pore water pressure is temporally created when a tide is lowered. The shear strength of the zone can be predicted based on the proposal suggested by Fredlund et al. It is emphasized that the excess pore water pressure generated during tidal fluctuations and strength parameters for the unsaturated zone should be considered in analyzing the slope stability of dykes. When those are considered, the critical slip surface seems to be located below the free water surface obtained when a tide is at the lowest.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
• /
• 2007.09a
• /
• pp.481-501
• /
• 2007

Excessive rainfalls due to climatic changes can trigger an increase in rainfall-induced slope failures that pose real threats to both lives and properties. Many high slopes in residual soils could stand at a steep angle, but failed during or after rainfall. Commonly, these slopes have a deep groundwater table and negative pore-water pressures in the unsaturated zone above the groundwater table contribute to the shear strength of soil and consequently to factor of safety of the slope. Stability assessment of slope under rainfall requires information on rate of rainwater infiltration in the unsaturated zone and the resulting changes in pore-water pressure and shear strength of soil. This paper describes the application of unsaturated soil mechanics principles and theories in the assessment of rainfall effect on stability of slope through proper characterization of soil properties, measurement of negative pore-water pressures, seepage and slope stability analyses involving unsaturated and saturated soils. Factors controlling the rate of changes in factor of safety during rainfall and a preventive method to minimize infiltration are highlighted in this paper.